Timberwolves’ Andrew Wiggins Beats Buzzer From DEEP to Shock OKC

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The Timberwolves were a different team in the first quarter of this game. Moving the ball around like they had actually met one-another before the game started, and playing defense that might actually be worthy of a team coached by Tom Thibodeau. The team shot over 50%. Teague looked like he belonged for the first time in his Timberwolves career. Wiggins was hitting shots again, putting up 10 points in the 1st quarter. It was fun to watch.

The 2nd quarter was a little more frustrating and Towns was really starting to stick out on defense. Sometimes, he isn’t anywhere near the right spot. He was having big time issues against Adams in the first half, defensively. He was also having issues keeping him off the offensive glass. Towns though, is so good on offense and on the offensive boards, you have to deal with the defense. He scored 13 points in the first half and went 0-4 from the 3-pt line…

Thought the game was close, the Wolves seemed to have control of the tempo and feel. Here are some highlights of the 1st half.

The 2nd half was a lot of the same thing. The Wolves had control and would go up 12 before OKC would make a run and bring it back to 3-4 point difference. Then, the Wolves would extend it before OKC came back again. It was like watching a yo-yo. But, the Wolves never gave up the lead, until just seconds remained.

Towns took the game over offensively. He is so good on that end of the floor. If he could even be average and not noticeable on defense, he would already be a superstar. I just hope he can figure the defense out. The end of the game came down to getting stops on defense and being efficient on offense. The Wolves came out of a timeout, after Teague hit 2 free throws, up 102-97, with 4:26 to play. These are the games that need to be won, that the Wolves had issues finishing last year.

This one wouldn’t be easy, though. The Wolves had the ball with just 29 seconds left and a tie game. They went to Wiggins, who took a couple of screens but kicked out to Butler when nothing opened up. Butler drove in but had to bail out to Towns. Towns, with time running out on the shot clock, drove in and hit a DIFFICULT shot with just 8.9 seconds left. So huge.

But that wasn’t it! OKC wasn’t done. Down one point, Westbrook kicked it out to Carmelo who thought he hit his first game winner as a member of the Thunder, with 4 seconds left. But Andrew Wiggins got the ball on the inbound, got a great screen from KAT, and had different plans. The rest is history.

What a game. Here are more 2nd half highlights.

What a game. What a finish. There was so much going on tonight and most of it was good. The worst part  was Karl’s defense. But, I like what KAT told Jim Pete after the game. He thought he played poorly. He obviously wasn’t talking about his offense. He knows he needs to be better defensively. Now, he just needs to do it.

However, he was amazing on offense. He hit a late shot that could have been the game-winner before the craziness between Carmelo and Wiggins to end things. These are the games that you need to find a way to win and now the Wolves have done it twice in a row, after winning a nail-biter vs the Jazz on Friday. If this were 2016, the Timberwolves are 0-3.

Sleep well Wolves fans. Your team is 2-1 and leading the Northwest Division! P.S.: It was old-school Thibs playing his starters A LOT tonight.

Eric Strack
Minnesota Sports Fan
MinnesotaSportsFan.com @RealMNSportsFan

Stat help from ESPN

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